5 things to keep in mind when hiring a “star” employee

Let’s face it, finding and keeping employees can be a challenge. However, once you think you have found the right person with all the best characteristics and skills for that specific job all of your problems will be solved? Well, not really.This type of employees have their pros and cons and here are the 5 things you should try to notice before it gets out of hand:

Remote work
High performers are usually very productive, that is a fact. However, with productivity comes the demand of flexibility. These type of employees want to manage their own working hours, since they know that they will perform when needed. As a manager, you have to be very careful with allowing them to work remotely. These kind of privileges can create tension among other employees. If they see that someone is allowed to work remotely they might ask for the same. Chaos and decreasing productivity are the last things you want in your office.

Mistakes
We are all humans and we all make mistakes, it is normal. Well maybe not for high performers. These employees work at a really high level, they are consistent and mistakes are not very common among them. In fact, if mistakes starts to occur it is usually because of either some personal issues or office policies, something that they cannot control. A good way for a manager to try and fix the issue is to have a conversation with that person. Remind them of how good they are and how much it means to have them on board.

Underperformance
This is similar to the problem mentioned above. There might be times when a high performing employee will turn in a mediocre piece of work. It does not happen often, but again we are all humans. Of course, as a manager, you should be aware of how many times that happens, if a high performer starts turning in work done poorly on a daily basis then you should get a bit tougher on them and tell them to pick up the pace. Your goal is not to make the person upset, but to remind them that you are there to help them, if needed.

Personal errands
As a manager, you know how valuable the high performers are to you. However, you need to be careful about letting them get too comfortable with their status, because they might start to focus on their own personal things when at work. Once in a while you see them chatting, browsing Facebook or doing other non-work related things. In this case the key is productivity, is the person performing at a high level even if he or she is busy with personal errands? If the answer is yes, well, you will have to live with that. One thing to keep in mind is that others might notice and take advantage of similar privileges.

Exceptions
Equality in a workplace is very important, but it might be hard to keep it consistent. Why? because high performers, unlike other employees, might think that they do not need to attend certain trainings or seminars. They might take more breaks during the day and so on. You have to ask yourself, does it affect your overall performance? Is it making harder to achieve certain tasks? If not, then again, you might just need to let it slip.

So this just shows that no one is perfect and hiring a high performer does not mean everything will suddenly become better or easier. You need to know that such employee might potentially  bring you more productivity and success, but a set of different issues will come along with him.

Content retrieved from: https://www.soprana.no/en/blog/5-things-to-keep-in-mind-when-hiring-a-star-employee.